Mademoiselle Lilliane

Another glorious spring day, although here it seem more like summer already!  I am scurrying around putting the finishing touches on the dolls I will be selling at the Bagwell Antiques Show in Jackson, Mississippi this weekend.  We had a small catastrophe yesterday; my cat Bella jumped up on the counter and knocked our digital camera to the floor.  It bent the case, and now we can't turn it on.  Doug was totally upset until I told him he needed a new one anyhow, right?  So today he is happily off to check out a replacement!  I need one by Friday to take pictures of my booth at the show.  I also take pics of all my dolls for sale.  Since this is an antique show, I have chosen to showcase my porcelain antique repro dolls and some of my sculpted dolls that look like the antique cloth dolls.  I had to dust off my porcelain doll making skills!!  It's been a while since I poured greenware, fired and painted from scratch, but it's like riding a bike; it all comes back to you.  The French repros are the most difficult to paint, but I LOVE making the elaborate costumes.  Mademoiselle Lilliane is 24" tall, and is dressed in the height of fashion for her time, in the 1890's.  She is dressed in a yummy celery green dupionni silk Victorian garden party dress with hand sewn appliques of re-embroidered lace, and a fabulous big picture hat trimmed in silk florals, ribbons and even a tiny bird!  Her underwear is blush colored pure fine silk trimmed in vintage laces, and her shoes are handmade as well.  Sorry, I didn't get pics of the shoes and underwear before the camera catastrophe!

Her hair is in the typical "Gibson Girl" style, and she carries a lace parasol.  Don't you wish we could still dress like this????  Although it today's world it surely would be impractical!  So, I can do the next best thing and create the outfits for my dolls.  More pics later of the show; wish me luck!!
                                                     
                            Gone to a new home!!!

Miss Celie

It was such a glorious Spring day, that Miss Celie wanted to sit outside beneath the century old azalea bushes.  She is my latest creation, and  represents a young girl  from the  antebellum South with quite a story to tell.  She and her family were some of the lucky slaves who were able to escape to  the north via the Underground Railroad.  Many sympathetic Southerners and Northerners  risked all to help slaves on their perilous journey .  Celie has with her a quilt square in a pattern called "Jacob's Ladder".

There is quite a controversy surrounding  certain quilt designs and their role in the Underground Railroad.  Some believe that certain designs were actually secret "codes" that the slaves could  follow on their road to freedom.  Quilts would be hung out on fences or in the windows of those  houses that were considered "safe houses", and supposedly the design would tell the slaves that it was safe to stop there, or other valuable information.  Many researchers do not believe that this actually occurred, but I find it very compelling.  Regardless,  Celie  loves her little quilt, especially since it matches her outfit.  She is about 26" tall and is made of cloth.  Her facial features have been sculpted of paper clay, and she has been oil-painted.  Her dress and pinafore are of Civil War era reproduction fabrics, and her boots are antique baby shoes.  Celie was a delight to create, and I hope you enjoy   her!

                Gone to a new home!!

New website

Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying as mild of a spring as we are here in Mississippi. Just wanted to tell you I now have a website: It is:   www.ladywithapast.com. Please check it out!

Miss Fanny

I would like to properly introduce Miss Fanny. The time is 1863, and Fanny is a young girl living in Natchez, Mississippi. Her dress is made of Civil War era reproduction fabric, and her boots are handmade of two colors of leather. She is carrying a handmade cross stitch pillow that she made to commemorate her 12th birthday. Fanny is made of cloth, and her facial features are sculpted of paper clay and painted in oils. Her bonnet is black velvet lined with gold moire taffeta. Fanny is for sale on Early Works Mercantile this month.

Gone to a new home!!

"EXPOSED"

The Craftsmen's Guild of Mississippi, of which I am a proud member, came up with the idea last year for a calendar featuring some of the artisans from the Guild. They called it "Expose Yourself to Craft" The idea was a big hit, and the calendar received national attention. I was very honored to be chosen for one of the "pinups" for the 2012 calendar! All the proceeds go towards funding children's art classes at the Guild, so we all embarrased ourselves a little for a good cause! What we do for our art!!!

Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope 2012 brings us all peace and prosperity! Just wanted to post a few pics of Christmas at Collina. I try to incorporate the dolls as much as possible in the decor. It is so much fun to set everything up, but NOT fun to take it all down!! Now that I've recovered a bit from the holidays, I am back at the drawing board, ready to start creating again. I will be participating in the huge National Doll Festival at the Hilton Riverside in New Orleans July 22-25, and am very excited! My husband hopefully will be participating with me this time, as I have convinced him to start making wonderful doll furniture and displays. He is a great woodworker, having done exquisite restoration work in our old home, and I hope he really enjoys this new venture. For Christmas, I got him three miniature tools to work on doll scale stuff. Most of the furniture and displays will be for dolls around 18-20" (American Girl size) and 12" (Barbie doll) size. It will all be antique reproduction furniture and room settings. We will customize room boxes to your taste in furniture, color, etc., right down to the drapery treatments and bed clothes, such as crocheted spreads, quilts, etc. I'll post pictures of them as soon as we get a prototype made up. Larger versions of these rooms have already been posted; they were my displays for the craft show I did in December.

GONE TO A NEW HOME!!!

"Tanzy" is my latest creation, and I must admit, my favorite doll that I have created so far! It still is amazing to me as a doll artisan how the dolls "speak" to me as their personalities start to emerge during their creation. That may sound silly to non-doll lovers/makers, but it is very real. They actually demand what type of outfit they want, the color, etc. I once sculpted a doll very much meant to be a little girl and it just didn't seem right; then I realized it was meant to be a boy! Tanzy is about 26" tall, and is a cloth body with paper clay sculpted facial features. She has been oil painted, dressed in a 19th c. dress and has antique children's boots. I put her on Etsy tonight! Please visit my Etsy site for other dolls for sale: www.dollartisan.etsy.com.